Sergio Perez Storms to victory in Singapore despite penalty

The Singapore Grand Prix was truly a race of attrition, with Sergio Perez being the driver to take full advantage of the weather variability, coming out of a slump he had seemingly been having for the past few races.

After qualifying P2, only 22 thousandths behind Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, the Mexican was able to get an identical start to Leclerc, with the two having a .290 second reaction time. But despite this, Checo's RBPT was able to launch him to first position before the first turn. Once this move was pulled off it was ostensibly smooth sailing for the Mexican.

Perez enjoyed only having Leclerc to battle, with Carlos Sainz running in third place 10 seconds behind the pair once all was said and done. Although Leclerc put the work in to try and pass the Mexican, the best he could achieve was matching his pace and no more.

Multiple safety cars threatened the security of Checo's lead, but the FIA had issues with the Red Bull driver not closing to within 10 car lengths of the safety car, being reminded to do so twice by stewards. For his inability to comply with the steward's requests he was awarded a 5-second time penalty, causing his 7.595 second to second place Leclerc to shrink to a 2.595-second gap, maintaining his win.

Stewards were rather lenient with punishment, citing how they "took into account the wet conditions and the difficulties highlighted by PER as mitigatory circumstances for the incident."

This win at Singapore makes the winning tally for Sergio Perez 4, having 2 on the season alongside his win at Monaco. And although the battle for the championship is practically over, with Max Verstappen being at the cusp of claiming his second World Drivers Championship, the Perez-Leclerc 1-2 today keeps the fight alive between these three drivers.